The Lime Cube Margarita
A proper margarita at camp with no bar, no blender and no bench space — because you did the work at home.
Want it in the van? Grab the one-page card, print it and stick it inside a cupboard door.
Download the cardFreeze the lime, not the water. Every normal ice cube waters your drink down as it melts. A cube of lime juice does the opposite — the longer the drink sits in the sun, the more lime it gets.
That’s the whole trick. Everything below is built around it.
Before you go
Kitchen bench, night before
- Juice the limes into an ice cube trayAbout 6 limes fills a standard 12-cube tray. Freeze solid, then tip the cubes into a zip bag so you get your tray back. One cube holds roughly 15ml of juice.
- Mix the batch and bottle itTequila, triple sec and water only — the lime is already in your cubes. Quantities are in the table below.
- Make your rim saltFlaky salt mixed with the zest of one lime, or just Tajín, in a small screw-top tin. It keeps for months.
At camp
Wherever the chairs ended up
- Salt the rim of RitaRun a lime wedge or a wet finger around the rim, then roll it through the salt tin.
- 90ml of batch and 2 lime cubes into MaggieLid on tight. Shake hard for 15 seconds — you want the outside of the cup uncomfortably cold to hold.
- Pour the lot into RitaCubes and all. They keep working while you drink. Rinse Maggie and you’re set for the next round.
The batch
| Into the bottle | 6 drinks | 4 drinks |
|---|---|---|
| Blanco tequila | 300 ml | 200 ml |
| Triple sec or Cointreau | 150 ml | 100 ml |
| Water | 90 ml | 60 ml |
| Batch volume | 540 ml | 360 ml |
| Lime cubes, frozen separately | 12 | 8 |
A six-drink batch is 540ml, which slides straight into Maggie’s 590ml body if you’d rather not pack a separate bottle. Decant it into something else when you arrive so Maggie’s free to shake.
Why the water? A shaken cocktail picks up water off the ice as you shake it — that dilution is part of the recipe, not a flaw. Pre-batched drinks that skip it taste hot and harsh. If you’ve got spare ice at camp, add a plain cube or two to the shake and leave the water out of your batch instead.
Like it sweeter? Add 60ml of agave syrup to the six-drink batch. Bring the water down to 60ml so it still fits.
Three worth trying
Spicy
Drop three thin slices of jalapeño or bird’s eye chilli into the batch bottle before you leave. It infuses on the drive. Fish them out when it’s hot enough.
Smoky
Swap a third of the tequila for mezcal — 200ml tequila to 100ml mezcal in the six-drink batch. Pairs with anything off the fire.
Cold brew
60ml tequila, 30ml cold brew, 30ml Cointreau, 15ml oat milk. Strange until you try it. And if Maggie held your coffee that morning, that’s just efficient.
What you need
Maggie
An insulated coffee cup with a shaker lid. Coffee at 7am, cocktail shaker at 5pm, and the only vessel you need for either.
Shop MaggieRita
An insulated cocktail cup that keeps what’s in her cold long after the sun’s gone off the awning. Pair her with Stan, our stainless straw.
Shop Rita